Containers occasionally must be shifted in order to allow the movements of other containers. As a result, most are moved between two and six times while at the yard. Each container's location prior to the system's deployment had to be manually recorded on paper, and then entered into Ameya Logistics' management software on its back-end database.

Because of the storage yard's complexity and high volume of containers, Ameya Logistics sought an automated system that would enable its staff, as well as shippers, consignees and customs inspectors, to know where a container is located within the yard at any particular time, based on its location the last time it was moved.

An RFID reader antenna is installed on the underside of each reach stacker's boom.

Ameya Logistics built a ramp at its gate through which containers enter and exit the yard. Workers use that ramp to reach the top of each container, on which they then attach a Hawk RFID tag, manufactured by C&B Electronics. An RFID reader, custom-designed by C&B Electronics, is also installed at the gate, in order to read each container tag entering the yard. Staff members then input the container's details into Ameya Logistics' management software, and as each container is transported into the yard, the interrogator captures its tag's unique ID number and transmits the information via a cabled connection to the software, where the ID is married to such shipment details as the container's serial number and the customer's name.